Tokyo  - Mizuho Financial Group Inc plans to issue up to 3 billion new common shares in the domestic and overseas markets to boost capital, the banking group said Wednesday.

The recapitalization was expected to raise the group's capital-to-asset ratio by about 1 percentage point from 10.55 per cent at the end of March and help increase lending capacity.

The sale of new shares via public offerings would raise the capital by up to 600 billion yen (6.25 billion dollars).

Mizuho Financial was to decide on the price of shares between July 15 and 17.(dpa)